"Last night my house was on fire. My wife told the kids, Shhh, be quiet, you'll wake up Daddy."

— Rodney Dangerfield

He always said he didn't get any respect, but Legends, the first episode of a documentary series about comedians (Comedy Central, Sunday, 9 p.m. ET/PT), is proof not only that comic/actor Rodney Dangerfield was well respected, but also well loved.

Says Chris Rock: "He cared about stand-up more than anyone in the history of stand-up." Jeff Foxworthy: "There are legends, and then there are the rest of us."

Rock and Foxworthy are just two of the show's many well-known comic names who assess, analyze and fondly remember Dangerfield's talent. Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Ray Romano, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara and Rob Schneider also wax about Dangerfield's delivery, work ethic and devotion to making people laugh.

One reason for so many big names: Melanie Roy-Friedman, 42, Dangerfield's daughter, made the documentary.

When her dad died at age 82 in October 2004, she realized that her sons, now 5 and 2, never got a chance to really know their granddad. So she set out to make a "living scrapbook" for them. "I wanted to make a show celebrating my father's career," she says. "I ended up interviewing 17 legends for the program. It was incredible."

The special also features rare scenes from The Ed Sullivan Show, old interviews and performance footage that Roy-Friedman took in 1988 in Las Vegas.

Legends doesn't delve into Dangerfield's struggles with depression or drugs — he once said he smoked pot every day of his life from age 21 — but focuses instead on his nurturing side. Dangerfield raised Melanie and her brother, Brian, as a single dad in New York City after their mother, Joyce Indig, died.

"It was a unique experience because he was home every day and worked at night," she says. "He opened Dangerfield's (comedy club) so that he could stay in New York to raise my brother and myself."

She remembers it as a good upbringing. "He would be home writing jokes all day in a bathrobe, and at any given moment he would walk up and say, 'Is this funny?' Sometimes as a family, we would punch up a joke together."

Surrounded by comedy all her life, Roy-Friedman never wanted to perform, opting to stay behind the scenes. "I worked at HBO for 10 years. I booked talent for The Chris Rock Show and Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher. I've been working for a long time with comedians. I feel most comfortable when I'm around them."

Editing the documentary was a challenge, she says, because all of the comedians knew Dangerfield well. She and Sue Wolf, executive producer for the series, winnowed down the interviews.

"It had to be punchy and sexy," Wolf says. "We just tried to craft the story that gave you the impression you are hanging out with Rodney. We're trying to celebrate what's fantastic about him and not do the E! Hollywood story."

They shot each comedian in front of a blue screen and then added a background of Dangerfield's club or other Dangerfield mementos. Some comedians gave them a lot of time — Seinfeld chatted for 40 minutes, Wolf says.

There is no host. "When you call somebody a legend, who is right to host that person?"

Finishing the project was the hardest part for Roy-Friedman. "It was a year of talking about him, learning about him, choosing clips," she says. "And at the end, I had to say goodbye all over again."